Vermont stocks more than 2,000 trophy trout for fall and winter

Vermont is running its fall trophy-trout plant for a third year. A Fish & Wildlife Department release dated Oct. 5, 2026, says more than 2,000 brook trout and rainbow trout, a year and a half old and averaging 13 to 14 inches, will go into four ponds and one stream in the south of the state.

Fisheries biologist Lael Will named the waters: Knapp Ponds No. 1 and No. 2 in Cavendish, Lake Paran and Lake Shaftsbury in Bennington, and East Creek in Rutland. Fish will come from the Bennington, Roxbury, and Salisbury culture stations. Stocking starts in mid-October so anglers can harvest fish before the rules switch to catch-and-release only in November.

Will said last year’s anglers told the department they used the late-season fish through fall and winter on waters where that chance had not existed. The release frames the plant as a foliage-season fishery that continues after the leaves are gone.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Vermont Fish & Wildlife — Fall Trout Stocking in Select Lakes and Streams (Oct. 5, 2026).